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A young woman's dream

The young woman:[a]

All night I lay on my bed.
    I wanted my lover to come to me.
    I looked for him but he did not appear.
I thought, ‘I will get up now and I will go into the city.
    I will look everywhere for my lover.
    I will look in all the streets.
    I will look in all the market places.’
So I looked for him,
    but I did not find him.
The city guards found me
    as they walked in the streets of the city.
I asked them,
    ‘Have you seen the man that I love?’
Just then, as I left them, I found my lover!
    I hugged him and I would not let him go.
I took him to my mother's house.
I took him into my mother's bedroom.
    That is where my life started, inside my mother's body.

Promise this to me, young women of Jerusalem:
    Do not cause our love to wake up.
Do not cause it to become too strong
    until the time is right.
The gazelles and the wild deer will know about your promise.

A royal wedding

Who is this who is coming from the desert?[b]
    It seems that smoke is rising into the air!
There is a lovely smell of myrrh and incense.[c]
    It is the smell of all the spices that a trader sells.
Look! They are carrying King Solomon on a throne![d]
    60 soldiers are travelling with it.[e]
    They are Israel's bravest soldiers.
All of them have swords.
    They all know how to fight well.
Their swords are ready for them to use.
    They are ready for any danger that comes in the night.
King Solomon made the throne for himself.
    He used wood from Lebanon to make it.[f]
10 He used silver to make the posts for it.
    He used gold to make its back.
Its seat has valuable purple cloth to cover it.
The young women of Jerusalem made it beautiful inside,
    to show their love.
11 Young women of Zion,
    come out to see King Solomon![g]
He is wearing his crown.
    His mother put the crown on him on his wedding day.
    It was the happiest day of his life!

Footnotes

  1. 3:1 The woman tells her friends about a dream.
  2. 3:6 The speaker here may be the young woman herself, or it might be one of her friends.
  3. 3:6 The ‘smoke’ that is rising may be sand or dirt from the ground. It blows about because many people are moving. There is also a lovely smell of spice.
  4. 3:7 People could carry someone on this kind of throne. See verse 9.
  5. 3:7 Verses 7 and 9 may mean that King Solomon is the man in the story. But, if not, maybe the man and woman are singing a song at their marriage. The song that they sing is about Solomon's marriage.
  6. 3:9 Lebanon is a country where there are mountains and many strong trees.
  7. 3:11 ‘Young women of Zion’ is another name for the woman's friends.

All night long on my bed
    I looked(A) for the one my heart loves;
    I looked for him but did not find him.
I will get up now and go about the city,
    through its streets and squares;
I will search for the one my heart loves.
    So I looked for him but did not find him.
The watchmen found me
    as they made their rounds in the city.(B)
    “Have you seen the one my heart loves?”
Scarcely had I passed them
    when I found the one my heart loves.
I held him and would not let him go
    till I had brought him to my mother’s house,(C)
    to the room of the one who conceived me.(D)
Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you(E)
    by the gazelles and by the does of the field:
Do not arouse or awaken love
    until it so desires.(F)

Who is this coming up from the wilderness(G)
    like a column of smoke,
perfumed with myrrh(H) and incense
    made from all the spices(I) of the merchant?
Look! It is Solomon’s carriage,
    escorted by sixty warriors,(J)
    the noblest of Israel,
all of them wearing the sword,
    all experienced in battle,
each with his sword at his side,
    prepared for the terrors of the night.(K)
King Solomon made for himself the carriage;
    he made it of wood from Lebanon.
10 Its posts he made of silver,
    its base of gold.
Its seat was upholstered with purple,
    its interior inlaid with love.
Daughters of Jerusalem, 11 come out,
    and look, you daughters of Zion.(L)
Look[a] on King Solomon wearing a crown,
    the crown with which his mother crowned him
on the day of his wedding,
    the day his heart rejoiced.(M)

Footnotes

  1. Song of Songs 3:11 Or interior lovingly inlaid / by the daughters of Jerusalem. / 11 Come out, you daughters of Zion, / and look